The controllers should work without additional packages, but the wireless controller needs a wireless reciever (the charge-and-play cable can not be used for communicating with the controller). Both the wired controllers and the wireless reciever is supported by the xpad kernel module.

+

The controllers should work without additional packages, but the wireless controller needs a wireless reciever (the charge-and-play cable can not be used for communicating with the controller). Both the wired controllers and the wireless reciever is supported by the {{ic|xpad}} kernel module.

−

If you wish to use the controller for controlling the mouse, or mapping buttons to keys, etc. you should install the xf86-input-joystick package (configuration help can be found using 'man joystick'). If the mouse locks itself in a corner, it might help changing the MatchDevicePath in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-joystick.conf from /dev/input/event* to /dev/input/js*.

+

If you wish to use the controller for controlling the mouse, or mapping buttons to keys, etc. you should use the {{ic|xf86-input-joystick}} package (configuration help can be found using {{ic|man joystick}}). If the mouse locks itself in a corner, it might help changing the {{ic|MatchDevicePath}} in {{ic|/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-joystick.conf}} from {{ic|/dev/input/event*}} to {{ic|/dev/input/js*}}.

==Troubleshooting==

==Troubleshooting==

Revision as of 17:00, 23 October 2012

This article or section is out of date.

Reason:please use the first argument of the template to provide a brief explanation. (Discuss in Talk:Gamepad#)

Joysticks can be a bit of a hassle to get working in Linux. Not because they are poorly supported, but simply because you need to determine which modules to load to get your joystick working, and it's not always very obvious!

Setup

Determining Which Modules You Need

For an extensive overview of all joystick related modules in Linux, you will need access to the Linux kernel sources -- specifically the Documentation section. Unfortunately, pacman kernel packages do not include what we need. If you have the kernel sources downloaded, have a look at Documentation/input/joystick.txt. You can browse the kernel source tree at kernel.org by clicking the "C" (current changesets) link, then clicking the "tree" link near the top. Here's a link to the Documentation from kernel 2.6.17.11.

Some joysticks need specific modules, such as the Microsoft Sidewinder controllers (sidewinder), or the Logitech digital controllers (adi). Many older joysticks will work with the simple analog module. If your joystick is plugging in to a gameport provided by your soundcard, you will need your soundcard drivers loaded - however, some cards, like the Soundblaster Live, have a specific gameport driver (emu10k1-gp). Older ISA soundcards may need the ns558 module, which is a standard gameport module.

As you can see, there are many different modules related to getting your joystick working in Linux, so I couldn't possibly cover everything here. Please have a look at the documentation mentioned above for details.

Loading the Modules

You need to load a module for your gameport (ns558, emu10k1-gp, cs461x, etc...), a module for your joystick (analog, sidewinder, adi, etc...), and finally the kernel joystick device driver (joydev). Add these to your /etc/rc.conf, or simply modprobe them. The gameport module should load automatically, as this is a dependency of the other modules.

Testing Your Configuration

Once the modules are loaded, you should find a new device: /dev/input/js0. You can simply cat the device to see if it works - move the stick around, press all the buttons. I found my Logitech Thunderpad Digital had two buttons that weren't working with the analog module. After reading some docs, I saw there was a specific adi module for this controller. The moral of the story is, if it doesn't work the first time, do not give up, and read those docs thoroughly! I couldn't get anything working at all until I found that documentation.

USB Joysticks

You need to get USB working, and then modprobe your joystick driver, which is usbhid, as well as joydev.
If you use a usb mouse or keyboard, usbhid will be loaded already and you just have to load the joydev module.

Xbox 360 Controllers

The controllers should work without additional packages, but the wireless controller needs a wireless reciever (the charge-and-play cable can not be used for communicating with the controller). Both the wired controllers and the wireless reciever is supported by the xpad kernel module.

If you wish to use the controller for controlling the mouse, or mapping buttons to keys, etc. you should use the xf86-input-joystick package (configuration help can be found using man joystick). If the mouse locks itself in a corner, it might help changing the MatchDevicePath in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-joystick.conf from /dev/input/event* to /dev/input/js*.

Troubleshooting

Joystick moving mouse

Sometimes USB joystick can be recognized as HID mouse (only in X, it is still being installed as /dev/input/js0 as well). Known issue is cursor being moved by the joystick, or escaping to en edge of a screen right after plugin. If your application can detect joystick by it self, you can remove xf86-input-joystick package:

# pacman -R xf86-input-joystick

More gentle solution is to add:

Option "StartKeysEnabled" "False"
Option "StartMouseEnabled" "False"

at the end of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-joystick.conf of joystick InputClass.

Joystick sending keystrokes

This is a good solution for systems where restarting Xorg is a rare event because it's a static configuration loaded only on X startup. I use it on my media PC running XBMC controlled with Logitech Cordless RumblePad 2. Due to a problem with the d-pad (a.k.a. "hat") being recognized as another axis, I used to run Joy2key as a workaround. Since I upgraded to XBMC 11.0 and joy2key 1.6.3-1, this setup no longer worked for me. I ended up taking a more direct approach and let Xorg handle joystick events.

First, make sure you have xf86-input-joystick installed. Then, create /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/51-joystick.conf like so: